Toyota sports car in the offing

For years, Toyota has reigned supreme in the auto world (although it’s currently having financial problems). But one place where it hasn’t reigned supreme has been in the area of sports cars, exciting cars.

Yes, there have been a few along the way — the MR2 two-seater (now discontinued), and the Supra, especially the last model (from about 1994-2002, but also discontinued.) But Toyota can’t hold a candle to its two other Japanese competitors — Honda, with its zippy S2000 or Nissan, with the fabled (in most permutations)Z-car. Toyota has always been pretty conservative and their model line-up shows it.

So maybe it’s something of a surprise, but Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, said the other day that the company will build an “exciting” sports car, in a joint venture with Subaru. Toyota is a big shareholder in Subaru’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries.

According to a recent New York Times report, the car will be “affordable,” but what affordable actually means could be anybody’s guess. Mazda’s Miata, in the low $20,000 range, is said to be affordable. A Jag XKR, upward of $96,000, is probably less affordable. It’s not clear when the car will come out, although it could be as early as next year.